Should you Focus on Instagram Marketing for your eCommerce Business?

Instagram marketing is something that many companies think about doing, but which not all businesses jump into. Part of the reason why this is true is simply because they do not know how effective it will be.

However, Instagram can be extremely effective for marketing. In fact, 60 percent of Instagram users find new products on the platform. Also, 80 percent of users follow a business on Instagram.
Statistics like these are very hard to ignore. This is because they demonstrate that Instagram is a crucial marketing channel for businesses that want to get the most out of their digital marketing campaigns.
Here are some great tips on how to use Instagram effectively to market your business.

Create an official account for your business

The first thing that you need to do is to create an official Instagram account for your company. You should make your username as close to the title of your business as possible. This will help to prevent confusion and to let customers know that your account is the real account for your brand.

Grow your following

Once you have an official account for your company, the next thing you need to do is to start rapidly growing your following. There are several ways that you can do this. The first is to post interesting content frequently. Regular posting helps to attract attention to your account.

You should also cross-promote your Instagram account on your other social media accounts, such as your Facebook account, your Twitter account, etc. This can help you to get your other social media followers to also follow your company on Instagram.

Use Hashtags

Instagram posts that have at least one hashtag receive more engagement than those that do not. So, if you use hashtags with your Instagram posts, it can dramatically increase the chances that your posts will be more effective and will help your marketing efforts for Instagram. There are also a number of specific hashtags that can be extremely helpful for getting likes. Using these can be very wise.

#ShareaCoke is a perfect example of a hashtag that can help to create interest and attract attention. The Share a Coke campaign was enormously successful for Coca Cola, largely due to its Instagram efforts. In fact, #ShareaCoke currently has over 650,000 posts on Instagram. This is a perfect example of the power that great hashtags can generate.

Interact with your followers

There are many benefits of interacting with your followers on Instagram. For example, interacting with your followers shows that your company is interested in what they have to say and that your company is responsive. It also helps to create stronger relationships with your audience, which can be helpful for creating brand loyalty. So, you should periodically respond to comments posted by your followers.

Make sure you have clear and strong calls to action

If you want your followers to do something as a response to a post you make on Instagram, then you need to let them know what you want them to do. Otherwise, they will not know which action to take. So, for example, if you post something about a current sale that you are having, then you can include a call to action such as “click here to buy these items on sale.” The easier it is for your followers to know what you want them to do, the more likely they will be to do it.

Here is an example of an Instagram post with a clear call to action. You can see on this post that it is very obvious what the desired action is, which makes it impossible for followers to confuse.

Conclusion

More than one third of all US adults now use Instagram. So, if your company has an Instagram account and if you use this account effectively, then your digital marketing efforts can be extremely successful. Creating an official company account, growing your following with frequent posts and cross promoting, using hashtags, interacting with your followers, and making sure that you have clear and strong calls to action can all help to enhance your Instagram marketing efforts.